Researchers Highlight Exponential Growth Of Self-Harm Posts On Twitter

A Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University report indicated a dramatic rise in recent months of Twitter Inc TWTR self-harm tweets, the Washington Post reports.

The researchers detected a Twitter community increasingly posting graphic photos with hashtags that reveal bloody self-injury practices. The users are 13-, 14-, and 15-year-old kids. The tweets garner unusually high engagement.

Since October, hashtags related to self-harm, like #shtwt" have increased by 500%. The monthly mentions of "shtwt" increased from 3,880 tweets in October 2o21 to close to 30,000 in July 2022. 

Similarly, the number of mentions of "beanstwt," or intense cutting, increased from fewer than 1,000 in October to over 4,500 tweets in August.

The report suggested that jargon and insider language may foster a sense of community, encouraging them to increase the depth or severity of their self-inflicted wounds.

Some of the content also appears to scorn Twitter's long-standing rules against promoting suicide and self-harm despite warnings from activists. The promotion of self-harm has the effect of validating and affirming it, encouraging more of it, they found.

Twitter has acknowledged taking self-harm content very seriously and working to build a safer internet.

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The report highlighted how social media companies like Twitter struggled to counter inappropriate content. The users posting to Twitter commonly use acronyms and coded language to discuss their self-harming techniques.

The 5Rights Foundation research highlighted that Twitter users shared images and videos of cutting themselves and exchanging razor details.

Recently Twitter merged teams that tackle harmful content and spam bots to "ruthlessly prioritize" such tasks.

Twitter has also dismissed a whistleblower allegation in India that voiced its vulnerability to espionage from foreign governments and that some of its employees may be working for government intelligence agencies.

Price Action: TWTR shares traded higher by 0.23% at $38.84 in the premarket on the last check Thursday.

Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay